


Dream in A Dream

by acornjaem (obtuse)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Actor Na Jaemin, Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Oblivious Lee Jeno, Practice Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:42:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24968407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obtuse/pseuds/acornjaem
Summary: “ Of course,” she continues, “even if you didn’t call, I’ll still be up to date in your day-to day shit, because you know WHY?” she says this last part a bit aggressively, “because JAEMIN. NEVER. TALKS. ABOUT. ANYTHING. ELSE. It’s always Jeno did this, Jeno did that, Noona, did you know Jeno—“Jaemin breaks free from his hold to yell into the phone. “HRAAAAAGH NOONAAAAA”Jisoo snorts and says placatingly, “okay, okay. Sorry. Jeno, what’s up?”“Noona, what do you think about meeting up with Jaemin later to practice kissing for your drama?”Or, Jaemin is nervous about having to have his first kiss ever with his co-actress from this drama he’s starring in, so he asks his best friend Jeno, who he is unfortunately in love with, to help him out.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 9
Kudos: 70





	Dream in A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> title is ten’s dream in a dream because that’s what i listened to on repeat to churn this demon out in exactly 25 hours and im unoriginal like that :9  
> i had this menace of an idea in my head at 1am yesterday and now it’s 2am today..

“Jeno,” Jaemin’s voice is quiet and drags around the syllables of his name, nudging Jeno awake from the cusp of sleep. Ah, he’s still gaming on his phone. Jeno jostles around a bit, taking care not to bump into Jaemin’s arm (not the one curled up around Jeno’s back, the other one, holding his phone up) and turns his head more towards the dip of Jaemin’s sternum. He hums in the most inquisitive tone he can be bothered to muster, at the least expense of effort and mm- “You smell so fucking good”, he mumbles sleepily and buries his nose again in Jaemin’s shirt, octopus-hugging him tighter.  
From above him, he can hear Jaemin swear softly and the muffled thud of his phone dropping onto the duvet.  
“You’re done with the game? Can we go have food now?” Jeno asks, giggling when he sees the tips of Jaemin’s ears reddened, probably embarrassed about losing his game, _cute._  
“Hey, I have a question. You had a girlfriend while we were trainees, right?”, Jaemin asks, ignoring him.  
Jeno pouts the hardest he can and wiggles in bed, wiggling Jaemin along with him, “Jaemin-ahhh, foood. Nowwww.” He drags the words, whining until he sees Jaemin smile in acquiescence, eyes fond.  
“Why are you bringing Eunhye noona up? I thought you hated her”  
“I never hated her!!” Jaemin says in that obnoxious voice of his, eyes all wide in pretend outrage but changes track when he sees Jeno’s disbelieving expression. “Okay, I didn’t like her that much! It’s just your dates ate up all our bro-hang out time and that’s a valid reason to dislike a person!”  
Jeno snatches the hand Jaemin’s been wildly gesticulating in the air with his and brings it down to his chest, interlacing fingers. It was then that Jeno had realized that no girl was worth upsetting his friendship with Jaemin. _I mean, that is true for all of his NCT members. But it’s the truest for Jaemin, since he’s his Best Friend for Life._  
“Get to the point, Jaeminnie” he says hitting Jaemin with their joined hands.  
“The point. Right. Um, the point— you guys kissed a lot right?”, he pauses here, but then rallies right on without letting Jeno reply. “Of course you did, you guys were boyfriend and girlfriend of course they kissed Jaemin why wouldn’t they kiss ANYWAY the point is! I have a drama! In which I have to kiss! A girl! Jisoo noona! On the MOUTH! And I don’t know how to kiss because I’ve never kissed anyone before!! So Jeno-yah, can you ki—“  
Jeno’s been listening to Jaemin’s tirade crescendo in agitation with increasing amusement and no less puzzlement as to where he was going with this. He’s also no less hungry than he was a couple of hours ago when he climbed into Jaemin’s bed to haggle for food with aegyo. So he sits up and presses his palm against Jaemin’s mouth and says as sweetly as he can manage while being hangry enough to eat Jaemin himself, “Why don’t we go to the kitchen and you can explain this kiss situation there? While we treat ourselves to your lovely cooking, hm?”

“You’re seriously being of no help, Jeno,” Jaemin says, turning around to glare at Jeno all the while flicking whatever’s in the pan with his wrist. He points at him with the spatula in his other hand and continues, “Useless, honestly”.  
Jeno laughs from his perch on the kitchen counter where he’s peeling tangerines and swings his legs more violently. “If I’m useful in the kitchen I wouldn’t have to bother you every time I’m starving, Jaeminnie.”  
Jaemin huffs, and the kitchen falls into their easy quiet.  
Jeno’s thinking over what Jaemin said to him. So his friend is nervous about his upcoming drama shootings because he has a few kiss scenes with Jisoo noona and he hasn’t kissed anyone before? Ah, this problem is too easy!  
Jeno says, “Jaemin”, pops the entire tangerine into his mouth and beckons him to come over when he turns around again. Watches him switch off the stove, set the spatula down and when he’s close enough, Jeno traps him in between his legs and tugs him forward. Ignores the slightly homicidal-sounding “what are you doing?” he gets when he pats down his shorts and pulls out the phone identical to his from Jaemin’s back pocket.  
“I have an idea,” Jeno holds the phone up to Jaemin’s face, “give us a smile please-“ Jaemin smiles mechanically. _(Jaemin’s face is red again! Must be because he was standing so close to the stove..) _Jeno fist bumps the air when it unlocks, like it’s some big achievement, and quickly searches up a contact. “Since you’re nervous about kissing Jisoo noona on camera, you can practice with her beforehand!”  
“NO NO NO NO WHY WOULD YOU EVEN— JENONONO!!”  
Jeno bursts into laughter at his theatrics, and holds the phone away from his grabby hands, “Why don’t you want to!! That’s the best solution! Don’t you think she’s pretty?”  
“Of course I do, I love her as much as you do, but—“  
“No buts, now you have a chance to practice for your drama as well as to kiss a cute girl!”  
Jeno taps dial and puts her on speaker with one hand, the other muffling Jaemin’s protests.  
“NOONA!”  
“Hey Jaem— oh Jeno! It’s been a while since you called, huh?” Her tone changes when she realizes it’s not Jaemin speaking albeit with his phone number, to a slyer tone.  
“Of course,” she continues, “even if you didn’t call, I’ll still be up to date in your day-to day shit, because you know WHY?” she says this last part a bit aggressively, “because JAEMIN. NEVER. TALKS. ABOUT. ANYTHING. ELSE. It’s always Jeno did this, Jeno did that, Noona, did you know Jeno—“  
Jaemin breaks free from his hold to yell into the phone. “HRAAAAAGH NOONAAAAA”  
Jisoo snorts and says placatingly, “okay, okay. Sorry. Jeno, what’s up?”  
“Noona, what do you think about meeting up with Jaemin later to practice kissing for your drama?”  
“... You’re asking in his place because?”  
“Aw, he’s shy, noona” Jeno says, and is immediately rewarded with a punch to his stomach. He retaliates by tightening the circle of his legs around Jaemin’s hips, giggling.  
The line is silent for a bit and then Jisoo speaks up, her voice tinged with something almost like, sympathy? “What happened to our plan, Jaemin-ah?”  
Jaemin’s face is downturned, but he smiles all pretty when he sees Jeno looking at him, “Please say you’re okay with this, noona”  
“Mm, let’s stay behind after the script reading this Thursdsy and talk more about this alright?”  
With an unenthusiastic hum of agreement, Jaemin hangs up and keeps the phone on the counter next to Jeno’s thigh. Jeno tracks the movement and then looks down at Jaemin’s face and suddenly, this entire thing isn’t as funny as it was a second ago.  
Jaemin’s eyes are smoldering, and if Jeno didn’t know any better, he’d think he’s angry from the way his jaw is set and his fingers are curled in Jeno’s lap but he’s not, it’s some other emotion that Jeno has never seen on his face before.  
Quietly, “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry, Jaemin, I’ll call Jisoo noona and expl—“  
Jaemin huffs out a laugh and says, “it’s okay, Jeno, I’m going to need the practice anyway” and Jeno doesn’t know why he feels upset at this, but he does.  
Then Jaemin looks up into his eyes and then he bites his lip for probably no fucking reason and suddenly it’s like Jeno has tunnel vision and it’s all he can see and oh!! Jaemin suddenly surges up towards him but pauses just as abruptly, so that Jeno’s gone a little cross-eyed staring at his mouth and the only right thing he can possibly do when they’re both in this tiny little space inhaling and exhaling the same air is to close that distance. So. That’s what he does.  
He cups Jaemin’s face in his hands, fingers at the nape of neck, soft, just like on nights when Jaemin complains of stiff muscles and swallows up the quiet sound he lets out. _Jaemin tastes so nice _he thinks,—he sucks experimentally on Jaemin’s lower lip— _mm, cocoa butter?_  
He doesn’t know for how long they’ve been kissing, but he does know that his lungs are burning, so he pulls back.  
Jaemin looks a sight, with his hair mussed and lips red and hooded eyes. Dazed, Jeno thinks that Jaemin looking like this will probably carry the entire drama’s ratings on its back. “Dude, what were you worried about again?”  
The corner of Jaemin’s mouth quirks up and he turns towards the stove again, tone dry as he says, “Fuck off. Go and lay the table.” ____

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So it’s Thursday, and by the time he wakes up, Jaemin has already gone for his schedules. Jeno’s a little sad, because he didn’t get to wish him good luck but he texts that to him, feels a bit better and goes for his scheduled practices and lessons.  
Renjun finds him in the kitchen later in the day where he’s inhaling cornflakes straight from the box.  
“Where’s Jisung and Chenle?” Jeno inquires, violently crunching as he speaks.  
Renjun sticks his head inside the fridge and emerges with a handful of chocolate bars and popsicles. “Date. Please close your mouth when you’re eating.” And then, quieter— “I heard about Jaemin having to kiss Jisoo. Are you upset?”  
“Jisung and Chenle are dating?”  
“Are you surprised?” Renjun smiles, and Jeno takes a second to digest this news and another to contemplate how pretty Renjun looks when he smiles and if the reason why he looks murderous most of the time is to keep the world on their toes.  
“But Jeno, you don’t have to pretend in front of me. You’re upset, right?”  
“Why would I be upset?”  
Renjun sighs in exasperation. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me. Want to watch a movie with me? I’ll let you pick a horror film of your choice because I know me being scared cheers you right up.”  
“Okay...” Jeno is confused, but Renjun never lets him watch horror in the dorm, so why would he argue?

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Renjun is cuddled up to Jeno and swathed in blankets from head to toe, peeping out of slits to look at the laptop screen half on his lap and half on Jeno’s and occasionally glaring at Jeno when his chuckles at Renjun’s antics get a bit loud.  
When the door to Renjun’s room slams open, Renjun startles and Jeno’s arms automatically go around him to stop him from pitching headfirst onto the floor. Jaemin is standing in the doorway, eyes on him. Jeno freezes, stares at him, then at Renjun and then at Jaemin again.  
Renjun snickers and when both of their heads snap towards him, he gestures with both hands towards the door, like a human-sized melty snowman shooing them away, “I’ll finish watching this”  
Jeno lets out an incredulous huff of laughter, “Come to my room at night when you can’t sleep, Junnie”. He presses a kiss to his forehead, the only part of his face peeking out of the blankets and bolts before he gets hit. 

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“How was today? You have to tell me how everything went!”  
Jaemin stomps towards his room dragging Jeno by his hand and so therefore consequently as a result when Jaemin turns around to shut his door, Jeno’s trapped between him and the door. He searches Jaemin’s eyes uncertainly, but he looks fine, so today probably went a-okay. But exactly how okay? His insides twist at the thought.  
He then follows where his eyes are looking, and _oh, he’s staring at his lips. Oh, they’re going to kiss again._ This realization makes him stare at Jaemin’s lips, they’re so glossy and shimmery and he’s saying something and Jeno’s so fucking mesmerized by the way his lips form words that he can’t really focus on what he’s saying. And really, there’s no reason for Jaemin to be talking when he could be kissing Jeno, so he pulls him in by the lapels of his jacket and kisses him.  
Jeno’s wandering hands still when the taste of mint registers. “What the fuck— is that Jisoo noona’s lip balm?” He grumbles against his mouth. Jaemin hums affirmative into the kiss, (so they did kiss, Jeno thinks distantly) giggles and pulls away at the sound of distaste Jeno can’t hold in. Jeno likes the taste of cocoa butter lip balm so much better.  
Jeno tugs him towards Jaemin’s bed, grabbing him a tissue, “Wipe it off please, it’s disgusting. It feels like eating toothpaste off your lips.”  
“Do it for me, Jeno-yah” Jaemin singsongs, smiling cheekily at his annoyance.  
Jeno huffs, then carefully drags the corner of the tissue with his thumb along his lip. And since he’s too curious for his own good, he disposes of the tissue and presses the pad of his thumb on Jaemin’s lower lip, wonderingly. And since Jaemin is Jaemin, he snakes out his tongue and sucks his thumb into his mouth— Jeno snatches his hand away as fast as he can to avoid thinking of the implications of the jolt of electricity that shoots through him at the sight.  
Jaemin laughs and laughs and pulls Jeno on top of him as he topples backwards in bed, which is how they fall asleep. 

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The following morning when Jeno stumbles into the kitchen bleary-eyed and yawning, Renjun looks up from his perch at the dining table and pouts, “I came to your room last night, but you weren’t there.”  
It takes Jeno a couple of seconds to compute, thinks _horror film, oh god no,_ and scrambles to apologize. But Renjun snickers in his face, and says, “I’m kidding, dude. I’m rooting for you, okay? Tell him soon.” Renjun pats him on the back, makes to leave with his mug of tea, then doubles back to HUG him, and leaves, still chortling. Jeno stares after him. He’s being really weird these days.  
“Did I just see Injunnie hugging someone before 9am willingly?” Jaemin sounds as confused as he is. He also sounds half dead, but that’s to be expected from pre-caffeinated Jaemin.  
“I hope he’s okay. Do you think he’s under too much stress?” Jeno asks, setting up the coffee maker to make Jaemin’s ridiculous wake-up drink.  
A sleep-warm body clings onto him, arms snaking around his torso and palms up his sleepshirt. “He’s fine... don’t worry about him.. Why don’t you worry like this about me, huh?”  
“What even are you saying, Minnie” Jeno smiles, crabwalking towards the fridge for the milk, but halfway through Jaemin stops holding up his own weight and goes boneless—“Jaemin, ugh-“  
“Call me Minnie again?”  
“Would you stop being deadweight then?” _You like being called Minnie? _, Jeno thinks. _Huh. _  
“Mm, promise”  
“Okay then, Minnie babyyy—owww! Ahahah stop, Jaemin!!”  
“Wow, the two of you act so much like an old married couple, it’s embarrassing to watch”  
The both of them freeze mid-tickle fight, Jaemin in a very incriminating attack pose, Jeno with his arms flexed in a defense pose but leg poised to kick.  
Chenle laughs, throwing his head back and clapping, as he usually does when he’s happy things have gone his way or when he’s scheming something nefarious. What’s scary about this is that nobody knows exactly which of the two is the reason.  
“Don’t stop on my behalf, hyung. Please ignore that I’m here, just like you did for the past fifteen minutes” he says, opening the fridge.  
Jaemin opens his mouth, closes. His ears are red again.  
Chenle unwraps a protein bar, stuffs the entirety into his mouth, stuffs the wrapper into Jeno’s curled fist, ruffles both of their heads at the same time, then bumps their heads together and runs away.  
“YAH, ZHONG CHENLE!!” ____

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A couple of days pass uneventfully before Jaemin brings the kissing issue up again. And it’s all because of this foreign drama they watched together. In it, the chemistry between the two romantic leads is good, their acting is good, but all of their kissing scenes are ugly as fuck, to put it nicely. It looks like the male lead is chomping down on the female lead’s mouth from certain angles and like he’s giving her the Dementor’s Kiss from all the other angles.  
So. Jaemin and Jeno discussed at length, and decided the only way to solve this issue is to do it like how they practice their dances. Film practice videos, watch them to find mistakes and repeat.  
That’s why they’re sitting cross-legged facing each other on Jeno’s bed, both their phone cameras placed at different positions.  
“This feels weird,” Jeno says, mostly to break the tension in the air making his chest tight. Kissing his best friend, he didn’t mind. He would go so far as to say he enjoyed it. He wonders if other people would find that weird. It’s just that, they’re both anyway very touchy with each other, so this feels like, in a way, the next logical step. He’s made out with Jaemin a couple of times now, and it doesn’t feel wrong to Jeno nor has it affected their friendship. But in front of a camera? That does make Jeno anxious, since most of their lives are in front of cameras anyway, and he knows what will happen to them if this gets into the wrong hands. I’m overthinking this, aren’t I?  
Jaemin looks up, and oh, he’s visibly nervous. Jeno takes in his posture, his fidgety hands and thinks, well we can’t have that.  
Better to just get this over with. 

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So he takes a deep breath, drags his index finger along Jaemin’s sharp jawline. Nudges his finger under his chin to pull his face up and slots his lips between Jaemin’s parted ones.  
He tilts his head and licks at his lips, at the cocoa butter, “Mm, you taste good..” he mumbles into the kiss.  
Jaemin sighs against his lips, says softly, “Put it on just for you”. Jeno doesn’t know how to reply to that, so he doesn’t, just angles his mouth so that the kiss can be deeper.  
_Jaemin kisses like he’s in love._ Jeno thinks, gasping into the kiss, his thoughts feel like they’re being dragged underwater. _Like he is love. Like he’d give up his entire existence to make me happy, no, to make the person he’s kissing happy. Not just me. Huh._  
His head is right down turbulent and that’s probably why he can’t hold back his moan when Jaemin tightens his grip he had on Jeno’s ribs and lifts him _physically_ up and places him _physically_ on his lap. He barely has the presence of mind to uncross his legs, and when Jaemin breaks the kiss, he mindlessly chases after his mouth.  
Jaemin smiles at him, but it’s not amused. Like this, he looks thoroughly debauched, hair disheveled, eyes dilated, lips bruised and twisted into a smirk that Jeno wants to devour.  
He pushes Jaemin backwards onto the bed almost aggressively and climbs over him to kiss him again. He’s so surprised at Jaemin’s full body shudder when he drags his fingertips lightly over his ribs, skin with a sheen of sweat and so so so warm to the touch that he does it again, his fingernail catching on his nipple accidentally. Jaemin shudders again, and lets out a moan so wanton that it does things to Jeno’s brain. Like, it shuts down, or stops transmitting nerve impulses or stops doing whatever it is that brains are supposed to do, and Jeno can’t help his hips kicking up.  
Jaemin groans, reaches out an arm to hold his hips in place. Jeno is so turned on, he feels like his hips would kick up again but then he looks at Jaemin’s face and he looks serious, with his eyebrows furrowed and he’s saying _we should stop_ and then Jeno’s scrambling off of him but he doesn’t know when he said we should stop does he mean, let’s stop for today? Or let’s stop making out forever? Or let’s break up? Which doesn’t make sense because they weren’t even dating? Oh!! Does he mean, let’s stop being friends? Jeno wants to ask so bad, but Jaemin’s expression is closed off and he’s picking up Jeno’s phone where it had collapsed down into the folds of the bed cover presumably when Jeno slammed Jaemin down onto the bed and he’s handing it to him, looking everywhere but at Jeno’s face.  
Jeno takes his phone woodenly and sits and holds his breakdown in until Jaemin storms out of his room. 

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Jaemin becomes very busy because of his drama and he’s almost never home. When he is home and whenever their schedules coincide, he goes to ridiculous lengths to avoid being in Jeno’s proximity. Jeno can take a fucking hint. He stops waiting up for him to return to the dorm past midnight, stops making him his morning coffee, stops texting him good luck on the days he has drama shootings.  
Chenle and Jisung show him their rooftop hideout they have discovered and he sits with them, music playing from Jisung’s Bluetooth speakers, on nights where he feels particularly sad and they talk. About the weather, the stars. Their schedules, the best brands of protein bars. And when Jeno asks, about how they got together.  
Jeno is happy for them, he really is. They’re younger than him, and have already got lives figured out. He feels like he’s intruding on their date nights, or at least, what can be date nights for people in their industry.  
Then there’s Renjun, who takes pity on him and invites him for movies and cuddles even though everybody knows he prefers watching movies alone, and lets him watch horror movies even though he hates them, and then, when the both of them get sick of horror, they watch sad movies about lost loves and misunderstandings and Renjun only sighs once for show before holding him close to his chest, Jeno’s face tucked into his neck when Jeno starts crying. 

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Jisoo noona calls once. Her tone is careful, like he’s fragile china. She asks him how he’s been, and he lies through his teeth and says _he’s alright, how are you, noona?_  
They converse like this, but then she sighs, “I know you’re having a fallout with Jaemin, darling.”  
At Jeno’s pause she says, “yeah, he told me”  
“Did he tell you why, noona?”  
From the way she pauses before saying _no?_ like she’s scared it might be the wrong answer tells him she’s lying.  
Jeno exhales and says quietly, “please tell him I miss him” and listens closely to the sound of familiar hitch of a breath, right when she replies _okay, I will_ , and hangs up, heart stuttering. 

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It’s late at night, and Jeno can’t sleep. So he’s in bed, door locked, earphones in his head. He presses play on the video and god, he can’t watch this. It’s like watching porn, he thinks, but much worse, because it’s you and your best friend. His phone tumbles out of his hand onto his bed spread, screen side down.  
But all of the sounds Jaemin made bear down on his ear drums and he feels himself getting hot underneath his skin and no, he needs to stop. He unlocks his phone and with frantic fingers, deletes the video, and deletes it from his recently deleted too, for good measure.  
God, he still is turned on. The only solution: long, cold shower. 

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He turbans the towel around his head, mood considerably lighter but stops dead in his tracks when he notices Jaemin’s figure leaning against the doorway.  
When he sees Jeno, Jaemin stands up straight, or at least tries to and sways dangerously. But before he can fall Jeno’s there and he’s holding him up.  
“Are you drunk?” God, Jeno can’t even get angry at him.  
“Hm?” Jaemin smiles dopily, “Nope. Just tired as fuckkk.”  
“Let’s get you to bed, then. Have you eaten?” He tries to crab walk like he normally does with Jaemin draped along him, but Jaemin drags his feet on the ground and plops down. He tugs Jeno’s hand, so that he sits down also, but much more gracefully.  
“I’m not hungry. Listen, I have things. To tell you.” Jaemin pauses in between words to shake off sleep, and it tugs painfully at Jeno’s heartstrings.  
He nods at Jaemin, like _go on_ and he does, in sleep-slurred speech staring resolutely at the floor, “I was a jerk to you. A right down jerk. I’m sorry I made you sad. I don’t want to make you sad. The last thing I want to do is make you sad. “—he looks up at this point and Jeno’s heart jumps into his throat to see his eyes glistening. Even if Jeno was blindingly mad at Jaemin he wouldn’t have been able to control his arms from cradling Jaemin close and thumbs from carefully wiping the tears away but this only makes Jaemin breakdown more—“no! You deserve better, Jen-jen. You deserve a better best friend than someone who can’t deal his own feelings. You deserve only the best, you know?”— he’s getting more agitated—“And I’m only a sleep deprived asshole, and you look so cute with that towel on your head and—“ Jaemin starts bawling for real, so Jeno drops his turban on the floor and pulls the boy to his chest.  
“Sh, darling, it’s alright, don’t cry..” he presses a kiss to the top of his head, “we’ll go to sleep now and talk about this more in the morning? How does that sound?”  
He hefts Jaemin up into his arms and decides for both their sakes, that the couch is the best option, rather than carrying Jaemin in the dark towards their rooms. He only means to drop him there and go back to his own room, but Jaemin refuses to let go, limbs wound around him in vice-like grip so he sighs and arranges himself carefully on the couch, Jaemin draped over him like a blanket. 

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Neither of them stir when Chenle squeaks in surprise seeing the two of them all cuddled up on the sofa, nor when he surreptitiously takes a photo of them to upload on to the groupchat he has, with Renjun and Jisung titled ‘NOJAEM IDIOTS’.

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_Jisung’s not here._  
Jaemin is pressed into Jeno’s side and Renjun and Chenle keep side eyeing the two of them, only giving attention to the drama on the TV screen when Jaemin appears, so that they can tease him.  
Maybe he’s having one of those life contemplation days, as Chenle calls them, or days where he just wants to be alone. He’s an introvert in a bunch of extroverts and sometimes he wants to be by himself.  
He catches Chenle’s eye and mouths “Jisung?”  
_Rooftop _, mouths back Chenle, smiling.__

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The drama on screen is riding to a crescendo, Jisoo noona yelling at Jaemin to not play with her feelings. There’s tears down her cheeks and Jaemin cups her face in his hands and her face is perfectly small that his hand can completely cover her face and now Jaemin’s saying something, wait, shit, Jeno missed it and now their bodies are curving towards each other like magnets and then they’re sucking faces and the OST is suitably flowery and power vocals wailing about true love and it’s pissing him off and noona is so passive she’s not even reciprocating, _I bet I can do better _, then, thinking of that damned video, _I know I can do better, I have done better_ — his internal rant is paused when Jaemin hides his face in the space between the couch and Jeno’s arm, embarrassed from Renjun and Chenle’s teasing. Jeno realizes with a start that he didn’t even realize they were teasing him because he was so preoccupied with the kiss and this is the absolute last straw for him. He stands up abruptly, “I can’t watch this” and, he’d like to say he left the dorm with total grace and aplomb, but no, he took off and ran all the way to the rooftop as fast as he could, his vision blurry with tears. __

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“Hyung, what’s wrong?” Jisung looks so worried and it hurts. There’s music playing but it doesn’t register.  
Jeno takes Jisung’s hands and speaks at them, “Jisung-ah, what does it mean when I, when I— god, I can’t even be a good friend to him” Jeno chokes out, realizing the reason why he got mad was over Jaemin acting. _He’s just acting there in the drama, there was nothing for you to go mad about. Why WOULD he even—_  
“Hyung, hyung, hyung, calm down. Calm down, okay? Don’t think that. Your feelings are valid.”  
“Explain to me how me being a shitty friend is valid, cos I can’t think how-“  
Jisung makes them sit down, and makes him explain everything. From the beginning. 

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Jisung’s contemplative for a second, then smiles at him kindly before delivering his verdict. “It’s jealousy, and it’s normal, hyung”  
“What would I be jealous about?” He sounds too defensive to his own ears.  
Evidently Jisung thinks so too, since he sighs exasperatedly and says, “Hyung, I’m going to tell you something now, alright, and you’re going to have to shut up and listen” and then without pause,  
“You’re in love with Jaemin hyung. The both of you are so in love with each other that anyone with half an eye in a mile distance can see how disgustingly infatuated you are with each other. It’s like you guys carry around neon signs with HE’S MINE pointing at each other. Jaemin hyung is super fucking handsy, I’ll give you that but have you noticed he only ever cuddles you to sleep? He only blushes when you do aegyo!! He gives us cheek kisses all the time, true—“ here he pretend grimaces, “but you’re the only one he kisses on the forehead, nose or any-fucking-where else! I DON’T KNOW! He cooks for you everyday! The two of you have standing biking dates every month! And YOU!! Hyung, don’t get me started on the whipped shit you do, you only ever do aegyo for him, you only ever—“  
Jeno holds up a hand to stem his flow, and says slowly, awed, “I’m in love with him?”  
Jisung nods like a bobblehead, “Yes! You! Are!!”  
Jeno notices Jisung has his phone out, but he can’t be bothered about trivial things like that. It feels like his head has been lifted up from being underwater and his thoughts aren’t groggy anymore, they’re flowing clear and they’re all going _JAEMIN I LOVE JAEMIN I LOVE JAEMIN I LOVE JAEMIN._  
Jeno feels lighter, like all the guilt weighing him down has evaporated, and he hugs Jisung and twirls him around. It’s then he sees Jaemin rushing towards them, from the direction of the stairwell.  
Jisung must have seen him too or somehow heard him coming since he says into Jeno’s ear in a piercing whisper, “Tell him today, or else you’ll have to deal with me, okay?” But he’s smiling when he pulls back, and he hugs him again before running towards the stairwell himself.  
Now Jaemin’s standing in front of him, hair windswept and gorgeous as ever.  
Jeno exhales and here goes, “Jisung told me I’m in love with you.”  
Jaemin clearly wasn’t expecting that, and he looks like all the air has been punched out of his lungs. “What did you say?”  
Jeno steps closer, “Jisung said,” he says, but then gets distracted by Jaemin’s FACE, understandably so, since it’s a very good face; his eyes trace the path of his strong eyebrows, down his cute button nose, and then he gets the urge to boop his nose, so he does, cos why the hell not, he sees Jaemin’s surprised smile from the corner of his eye, his eyes are sparkling in the night lights and so Jeno thinks about their trainee days where they snuck out to the nearest convenience store after practice nearing midnight, hiding in the shadows of the streetlights, of their lazy mornings with freshly brewed coffee and fruit, of grueling dance practices, of after, slumped together against the mirror, sweaty and tired and thinks of them cuddling in bed, kissing, holding hands, celebrating their first win with their DREAM members, going through everything life has to offer, together. He’s already forgotten the beginning of his sentence but he knows just the right thing to say.  
“I’m in love with you.”

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After Jaemin screams at the sky and has a breakdown and says it back to him, Jeno just opens his arms. Jaemin steps into the embrace and they hug for a long time, Jeno just pressing his nose into Jaemin’s collarbone and swaying them back and forth. When Jaemin is released from his death grip, Jaemin shouts, “I’M SO HAPPY!!!!”  
So Jeno starts shouting too, and they both burst into giggles when they hear faint screaming from the floor below them, which is where their dorms are. Jeno thinks, _my members are the best. ___

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When Jeno looks at Jaemin, he sees that Jaemin is already looking at him, and like a beacon of light calling out to him, Jeno can only step towards him, like a punch-drunk moth or firefly or whoever small insect that maybe attracted to light. When Jaemin kisses him there, it feels like coming home. Jaemin still kisses like he’s the human embodiment of love, and Jeno laps it up like he’s parched.  
They stand there, under the night lights and the twinkling stars, hopelessly entwined for a long while. Jeno can now hear faint music still emanating from Jisung’s speakers that he must have left behind, over the sound of their mouths meeting again and again and it’s a high upgrade, he thinks, from terrible drama OST music, then feels bad for a second, then decides he doesn’t care.  
When he pulls back it’s Jaemin that chases his mouth this time. Jeno smiles at the memory but slots their lips together again briefly. “Quit kissing me for a second, I have something to tell you.”  
Jaemin whines against his lips, “whaaaaat?” but slowly pulls away.  
Jeno presses his palms flat against his boyfriend’s cheeks and says, “I’m in love with you, Minnie” and laughs when he feels Jaemin’s cheeks get warm underneath his palms.

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**Author's Note:**

> 1\. jaemin and jisoo’s plan was to get jeno volunteer to kiss jaemin in the first place but jeno is too oblivious of his own feelings  
> 2\. jisoo made jaemin put on her mint lipbalm before he left, she didn’t want to kiss him any more than her job told her to  
> 3\. i love renjun so much  
> 4\. the dreamies absolutely have a gc called the nojaem couple or whatever in which they make fun of stupid gay stuff the pair does u cannot change my mind
> 
> if u read this far you are legally obligated to leave a comment. 
> 
> (this is the first thing i’ve ever written so pls let me know how i can improve)


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